what never fails to intrigue me was the instructors always deduct points for 8.01, 5.02, 4.02 for WOBBLE. i had spent most of the time during my free time wondering if "wobble" is just a ill conceived notion to make us repeat modules and take more lessons =D
most of us will not be able to detect wobble in the beginning stages of learning, at least until we see one for ourselves. i had learnt to recognize one when i first spotted someone wobbling on his cruiser.
(it was pretty obvious 'cos the bajaj avenger had a really long wheel base and u can really see wobble in slowwww-mo)
to simplify, a wobble to my own understanding is given that your bike is on 2 wheels rolling along, the bike wobbles when it either tilts to the side and back and so on!
(you can visualise it as a roly poly toy tilting side to side only that your bike is still rolling forward!) see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roly-poly_toy
i.e. to say, the balance of the bike was UPSET when the wobble occurs while the bike was rolling forward.
you will note that the bike does not really wobble when the bike is turning or cornering.
(more on that later, when i discuss moving off from stopping with a sharp turn in a later post)
so when does your bike wobble?
- when you're moving off
- when you're stopping
- when you are checking your blind spot,especially when you're doing your lane change!
the first key important thing is eye-point.
this applies to all 3 situations.
it seems that as long the head and the eye points towards a certain area, the bike will go there!
you may consider your eye, nose and the level of your chin as a motorcycle path aiming device!
i.e. to say to avoid wobble, heads up level, focus on something far, so as to get used to the head position required!
- look up and don't look down when you're moving off!
- look up and don't look down when you are braking to stop!
- look up at something in the horizon.
if a biker is in front of you "see" through his/her helmet!
this is repetitive, but it make sense! you have to try to know it.
situation 1: moving off
besides eye-point, wobble occurs commonly when you rush to bring your left foot up onto the pegs!
this would probably more obvious when you're practicing low speed control.
guide line:
- if you're moving off and stopping within a bike distance, you do not have to bring up your left foot immediately! (hang your foot)
- if you're moving off and stopping beyond a bike's distance, bring up your left foot only when the bike has traveled straight with enough momemtum. foot should not be rushed to the peg or else it will upset the balance of the bike!
- for the more curious folks, a bike is around 2m in length. a car is typically 4m long.
- before the bike moves off, you're balancing the bike with your left foot, right foot holding the rear wheel stationary.
- when the bike moves off, 2 phases occur:
- 1: bike attempts to roll forward and is unstable. bringing up your foot will caused the bike to wobble!
- 2: bike gains enough forward momentum, feeding the throttle the rear wheel causes the rear wheel to upright due to gyroscopic effect!
- its only during the 2nd phase onwards u can start controlling your body position so that wobble does not occur with sudden adjustment of the body!
i'll post more on situations 2 and 3 in a later post.
15 comments:
Hey, great post! Just took up 2b and am having problems with the perennial wobbling disease.
Can't wait for the 2nd and 3rd part (:
thanks for the comment! i'll try to follow up with at least part 2 on stopping by end of the week! been busy at work!
Thanks for your coverage on wobbling! I got 18 demerit points from poor acceleration, wobbling, sharp and wide turns! :(
Not sure if you still check this blog but if you do, could you share with me what poor acceleration is about? I felt my riding is comfortable for me and I didn't expect to be penalised for that. Thanks in advance!
Yes I'm checking the blog but I have no time to update!
Poor acceleration in simpler terms usually means that your not picking up speed enough when you need to, or you are dilly dallying while doing so. It could be also your gear changing not smooth so engine behaved as if there is no power.
You might want to check when you pick up speed and how well you pick up speed when you need to. Are you changing gear too early? Or the engine revs are not enough when you change gear? Did you change gear too early when you turn or lane change? This will also result in inappropriate turning angles as well.
Riding comfortable is one thing but when during major manoeuvres, the pick up in speed and power to the wheel must be enough to be decisive. This is what i interpret from poor acceleration as if u lack the power or acceleration during such important moves, you may get into trouble on the road. I'm inferring this from the wobbling points you are getting, so I might be wrong!
You don't have to be aggressive with the throttle, but you must be ASSERTIVE with throttle control. Hope this helps!
Hey thanks so much for replying! My previous setting of my inbox didn't allow me to receive notification so it's only until now when I return here that I realized you replied, within an hour!
I think my poor acceleration is mainly during moving off. People in front of me move off very quickly but I am always slower in moving off. I tend to release brake, open throttle and release clutch all at the same time. Would it make a lot of difference if I open throttle more first before releasing clutch? And it's ok to be slightly noisy on the throttle, then slowly ease it off by releasing the clutch?
I previously had the problem of changing gear too early but my instructor said I overcame that problem already.
Really really thanks for your help!
Yes, you can open throttle first before releasing the clutch, in fact that's what i do most of the time to get the engine revs up. That way, your moving off is more assertive and less likely to wobble due to lack of power that way.
Of course for this, you must really ease out the clutch lever and not jump the clutch for the power delivery, or else you will jerk and wobble due to sudden clutch release.
if you find it an issue to coordinate the brakes during move off, try dragging and then easing off the rear brakes more than releasing the front brake. front brake use is usually more jerky and more difficult to coordinate.
yes, it's okay to be noisy but how noisy is noisy? if the school bike like bbdc's, you will have no tachometer to gauge. that you will have to get an instructor to help you listen, but a possible gauge is to use the engine sound that you get during a really good narrow plank timing as a relative guide.
otherwise, you can use your "butt" to feel but that's quite subjective. this is quite unscientific (no emprical data perse), but i would say, go with the "butt feel" where you know the rear wheel will easily stay upright due to the engine power, as opposed to a weaker throttle delivery.
hope this helped! and have you passed your TP?
Seems that I need to control my clutch release better.
Well, I took my TP 2 weeks ago and got many demerit points from wobbling, + some other mistakes, so I failed it! Right now i'm still waiting for my retest next month. Instructors told me before that my wobbling was quite obvious, but I seriously didn't know I would get 18 points for it =/ ... that's why i'm frantically trying to figure out now haha...
The tip about how noisy is noisy using narrow plank as a guide is good. I'll try to pay attention to that more during my practice.
sorry for the late reply on this!
well, my advice to you now is to be more aware of the wobble when it happens.
you can become more self aware by:
- doing alot of clutch control exercises. if you are in bbdc, book a SP(self practise) and spend a bit of time in the mini circuit.
during this time, practise starting and stopping in short distance at low speed.
you should also be paying more attention how the motorcycle tracks forward in a line, and how the rear wheel move.
also pay attention to the front and rear suspension. there should be minimal dipping when you stop.
- take some time to sit outside the circuit e.g. the canteen at the window in bbdc and observe how everyone else ride during basic manouevres, including starting, stopping,turning., lane change. observe their bike stability, the path they take, and also, the rear wheel.
you will bound to observe the many different ways people wobble and be more self aware later how u may wobble.
get the instructors to spot u when you ride! sometimes the best way to learn is to get more feedback from the instructor who observes you during the circuit! i am guessing here now that you dont really have issue with the circuit obstacles like narrow plank or slalom, but more of transiting point to point. this is where your body and bike language becomes evident and becomes fodder for demerit points.
Hello! Thanks for all the tips. In my past SP I focused too much on individual courses so I really didn't have problems with the courses. It's general riding skills that I'm really weak at. wobble wobble wobble. haha. so glad i found your blog.
Anyway I found a tip that could help me solve the 'delay in moving off' problem on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XspmqhVR5w8. His tip is to not pull the clutch all the way in when stopping. Just pull in enough just past the biting point so that when moving off, there won't be delay since by letting go just of the clutch just a bit, power can be transmitted already. But of course this seems to require great confidence and familiarity in the clutch. Let me know if you have any opinion on this. i feel so paiseh to take up your time in entertaining a noob rider like me!
the problem is that i really thought i wasn't wobbling, then some instructor will just look at me, shake his head and tell me, 'eh, you're wobbling a lot'. =.= sianz.
i'll keep trying, thank you!!!
no problem on this! not taking up time because helping others getting the right skills on circuit means another possible life saved on the road!
about wobble awareness, that's the reason why i said to observe how others wobble! honestly you wont know you are wobbling until you gain real self awareness on this! on a side note you will gain higher awareness of this effect later when you ride a heavier motorcycle and then go back to a lighter one during defensive ridig courses after you've got yr license!
as for delay in moving off, this video will apply, if you were delaying in getting the bike moving due to machine control. yes, opening throttle and clutching out slowly will let you know how much of a friction zone is for a CERTAIN bike. in the school you will be using many different bikes with different clutch freeplay and hence the friction zone will vary with different bikes.
the one way to get over the familarity issue is to test each bike's friction zone the moment you get it, before you move to the start point.
in addtion, you have to develop finger tip sensitivity on where the friction zone will start, so this may require some finger strength training and some correlation with the wheel power whenever u perform clutch control on a different bike. by this, what i mean is to control the clutch lever with your finger tips instead of your knuckle strength, if you havent been doing so already.
you might have heard people complaining about their clutch no good this and that before because of the difference in freeplay, but i can confidently tell you this will not be an issue once you develop this clutch-fingertip-rear wheel sensitivity.
also, if you are curious about friction zone and clutch freeplay, the typical freeplay is usually around 1 knuckle length or about 1 inch. this is not hard and fast as it different with motorcycle models but checking out the freeplay everytime will also give you more confidence in machine control later.
good luck and ride safe!
this is so cool, i only realised the importance of the clutch after failing my TP ;)
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Ya wobble causes me fail 76
Hi! 76?
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